Mister Terrific #1

At the club.

I don't know where Mr. Terrific came from. He's vaguely familiar and I've read comics that he's starred in but I don't know anything about him. I can't recall if he was around when I stopped reading back in 2003 or if I only know him from having read the 52 storyline. So I guess I'll learn about him now!

I don't know why he's called Mister Terrific. Why not Captain Awesome? Or Commander Bee's Knees? Doctor Tip-top? Senor Best? Sgt. Bedazzler! Or Black Mister Terrific?

The first page introduces me to him. He rides around on little floating Phantasm balls with a 'T' on them and he updates himself on what's going on in narration boxes just like the other heroes of the DCnU! Thanks for making that a standard thing, DC Editors!


I'm already beginning to be sad about his cancellation!

After a page explaining how Mister Terrific lost his wife and unborn son in a traffic accident, he narrates:

Mister Terrific: I don't believe in God.
Mister Terrific: Now you know why.

Now I know why you've been cancelled! Actually, I just assumed that since he was the third smartest man in the world, he didn't believe in nonsense!

So he's a super intelligent black super hero who is also an atheist. Eric Wallace, sir, you were asking for cancellation in your first issue! Not from me, mind you. I'm already loving this guy!

Oh, and see this:



That's the person's reaction to Mister Terrific's Narration Boxes. Yes! We have a writer who used the voice of the Narration Boxes correctly! Mister Terrific was telling the action of the first few pages and the story of his lost wife to somebody instead of replaying it in his head.

This is like watching canned laughter sitcoms for years and suddenly hitting upon The Office sans laugh track. Except I've only been reading the New 52 for a couple of weeks.

I decided to find out who this Eric Wallace is. A professional writer for Eureka and long time fan of comics. And quite likable in that interview, although I stopped watching when they began talking Mister Terrific.

Being that Mister Terrific and Static Shock have both been cancelled, should I assume DC Fanboys are big fat racist jerks? I bet they're at least fat! How did Batwing survive the cut, especially with Judd Winick writing it?! Okay, maybe Winick is a good writer. I'll have to save my judgment for later.

I guess this comic still has time to tank! But I'm sure the cancellation of the six DC titles was mostly due to the popularity of the title character which probably caused a lot of people to never even pick this book up. Or Blackhawks. Or OMAC.

Um. Back to the comic book!

Mister Terrific's secret identity is Michael Holt. His identity isn't anything like other super hero identities. He's a genius entrepreneur inventor. Just like Mister Terrific! I wonder if Michael Holt goes around saying he's the third smartest person in the world because that might be a clue to some people, even if they're only the 2,523,344,023rd smartest person in the world!

Mister Terrific's mask is a big T tattooed over his face. Unless that's a mask. But it looks like face paint. He has the word Play tattooed on his left bicep and Fair tattooed on his right bicep. His secret headquarters are in a static location somewhere in the Ninth Dimension.

Michael Holt throws huge parties for high profile politicians just like Bruce Wayne does! Maybe Michael Holt is Batman! Or Green Arrow!

Are there any poor Super Heroes? I guess if you aren't lucky enough to have super powers, you have to be incredibly rich to become a super hero. At least Mister Terrific worked for his money as opposed to those society leeches Queen and Wayne.

But all of Mister Terrific's smarts and gadgets and science formulas can't keep him from being possessed by the Villain of the Month at the end of the comic! Even though the villain hasn't shown himself, his name is apparently Brainstorm.

This brings up an interesting point about this comic. The story was well paced and well told and it didn't need the conflict of some super villain across most of the pages to get the job done. The beginning introduced Mister Terrific while fighting what seemed like a corporate rival who was supplying bad people with highly technological weapons. And then there was a page or two of normal people going crazy as they were taken over by Brainstorm. And then, at the end, Michael Holt himself has been taken over.

How will he break free?! By being the third smartest person in the world, of course!